Bebo: Facts and Figures

Sydney.
Next up here at the Australasian Media & Broadcasting Congress is Francisco Cordero, General Manager Australia at Bebo, a social networking site which is big in the UK and has recently moved into the Australia/New Zealand market in a more substantial way. Indeed, the promo DVD that Francisco is showing here still has a strong British accent, in contrast to the MySpace promo we saw in the previous session.

The DVD compares Bebo profiles with users favourite music and media to a typical teen's bedroom, incidentally. It also highlights the made-for-online drama series Kate Modern as an online marketing tool, which was used to promote new bands, for example. The Bebo term for brand engagement with Bebo users is 'open media' - even though the DVD promises in the same breath that brands control content, distribution, user experience, and advertising.

Francisco points out that Bebo now no longer calls itself a social network, but a social media network. This builds on its open media platform, which does not impose one player technology on brands (as YouTube does, for example), but provides spaces for brands to embed their own players, over which they have full control and from which they are able to draw 100% of the revenue. Unsurprisingly, this has been extremely successful in attracting media brands. Additionally, made-for-Bebo shows such as Kate Modern (produced by the people behind the lonelygirl15 spoof) was also extremely successful, and a number of others (including a reality TV show by Endemol) are on the way.

Bebo is now very well established especially in the youth market, and social networking overall is extremely successful here. Viral marketing is a very important and commercially lucrative element of this; the next level is that marketers in mainstream media companies are pumping short-form content produced by big-name producers into such sites. At the same time, user-generated content also cannot be dismissed; there is an example here of a user doing vox-pops on the latest episodes of UK soap Holyoaks right after the episodes screened, and this became extremely successful as well.

In many ways, Francisco says, Bebo is for the media producers something like a TiVo - providing users with content to be watched whenever is convenient to them. But the difference is that this is embedded into a network of millions of users. Another analogy is of Bebo as a shopping mall where millions already hang out - so brands only need to set up their shops on the site and extend an invitation to users to step inside. One example Francisco notes is the Bebo site of airline Jetstar NZ, which also incorporates content from other Bebo-active brands (e.g. a reality TV show taking place at some Jetstar destinations), thus tying those properties together. (The UK Royal Airforce is successfully using Bebo as a recruitment tool by posting video diaries of soldiers serving in Iraq, too - obviously these videos don't focus on the fighting, but on everyday life on deployment.)

Engagement per user is around 30-40 minutes per day. Historically, with the evolution of online media and social networking there has been a progression from communication through connection, self-expression, and empowerment to entertainment - the big question is what will come next. Bebo has been named as the best social network due to its focus on encouraging responsibility in social networking. Interestingly, Francisco also highlights the collaboration between Bebo and TVNZ, which is unique in the world.

Some more numbers: made-for-Bebo show Kate Modern generated 67 million video streams, The Gap Year 17.6 million, Sophia's Diary 17.6 million, and Sam King 5.6 million. On this point, Francisco notes that measuring and understanding a brand's social media strategy is critical. He concludes by noting that social media provide interaction, engagement, and amplification - so success must be measured on these points.

Technorati : AM&BC2008, Bebo, community, produsage, social media, viral marketing
Del.icio.us : AM&BC2008, Bebo, community, produsage, social media, viral marketing